‘Disappointed’
“Where are the candidates? I don't know anyone here,” says Daniel Lima, a 21 year old who was hoping to see the big-hitters such as Romario and former Rio mayor Eduardo Paes. dates.”
“It’s important that they can go into the favelas, to make contact with the population so they can get a different idea to what you see on television.”
Every day, politicians highlight the numerous shoot-outs in favelas, and not without reason. The Mare debate is interrupted they are often viewed as criminals rather than the victims of favela violence, simply because that’s where they live.
Arthur Viana de Andrade (21) is getting ready to vote for the first time. While he hasn’t made up his mind yet, he knows who won’t be getting his vote.
“When I hear someone saying: ‘The only good bandit is a dead bandit’, that scares me because as a black man living in a favela, I know I’ll be a target,” he says, in reference to frontrunner Bolsonaro, an ex-army captain.
‘No shame’
cals most want to discuss. Their interest is more in health and education.
“They need to build us a big hospital here, in this neighbourhood,” says Lucia Gomes (49), who was selling cakes at the entrance to the cultural center.
“This business of public safety in favelas doesn’t exist. Health is what is most important.”
Political disillusionment is rife right across Brazil where voting is obligatory but where recent opinion polls have suggested as many as a quarter of voters will either abstain or spoil their ballot papers.
“Here, people have lost all faith in politicians and complain that they’re all corrupt, they’re all thieves. But me, I want to listen to the candidates’ proposals. Abstention is not a solution,” says Sheyla Amaral (42).
Another problem, according to Eliana Sousa Silva, a director of the Mare Network that organised the debate, is that favela voters can be too easily manipulated.
Drug gangs also hold undue sway and sometimes candidates must ask their permission or even pay for the right to campaign in certain neighbourhoods.
“Recently, I saw candidates handing out half-rotten fish to people or offering free haircuts. They have no shame,” adds Shyrlei Rosendo, another charity worker.
Residents feel they are often viewed as criminals rather than the victims of favela violence, simply because that’s where they live
Debate organisers chose ‘security’ as the central theme for the meeting, but that’s not what lo-